N/A: Paul Merson, England, The Official England Squad Medal Collection 1998, The Final Five

While the 1994 World Cup was the first major tournament I remember and Euro ’96 dominated all aspects of life due to being held in England and the host nation’s penalty shootout heartache it was not until 1998 that I truly tapped into the build up to the forthcoming festivities in France. We gathered at my uncle’s to watch the pivotal qualifier between the Three Lions and Italy to witness Paul Ince do his best Terry Butcher impression and the 0-0 draw meant it was time to squirrel away the pocket money for yet another sticker album. It’s probably a good time to personally apologise for the climate crisis, and to my old man, due to the regular visits to the Sainsbury’s petrol station deemed essential for the good of the family motor which were actually to add to the supermarket’s questionable tie-in medal collection.

The speculation over who would make Glenn Hoddle’s squad was endless and the England manager was spoilt for choice in a variety of positions. The joint top scorers in the Premier League were Dion Dublin, Chris Sutton and the young upstart Michael Owen but only the latter world make the cut. Despite making the PFA Team of the Year Manchester United’s Gary Pallister and Nicky Butt both missed out while Leeds United’s goalkeeper Nigel Martyn had to settle, as he did for most of his career, for a berth on the substitute bench behind David Seaman. In the attacking midfield role there were calls for Matt Le Tissier to head to the tournament after his hat trick for England B while the similarly maverick Paul Gascoigne had been phenomenal in qualifying and impressed north of the border with Rangers. Photos of the latter enjoying a late night kebab with ubiquitous irritant Chris Evans led the naturally conservative Hoddle to omit Gazza from his final squad and cost the England manager the cleanliness of his hotel room. Instead he looked to a player who had conquered his demons to resurrect his career in the second tier leading the good people of Sainsbury’s to hastily cobble together some new medals.

Paul Merson came through the ranks at Arsenal and contributed significantly to the Gunners’ two league titles in 1989 and 1991. By the start of the 1994/95 campaign he had also picked up FA Cup, League Cup and Charity Shield winner’s medals as well as the Cup Winners’ Cup but behind the scenes things were not as rosy. The drinking (and motorway dinner) culture at Highbury was infamous but Merson had also developed cocaine and gambling addictions and took an FA sponsored sabbatical to receive support and rehabilitation. His return to the side in a disappointing domestic campaign helped the Gunners reach another Cup Winners’ Cup final although Nayim’s long-range effort denied them more silverware and he was a regular first team player in the far more successful 1995/96 season under Bruce Rioch. Merson also played a key role in Arsene Wenger’s first campaign at Highbury as Arsenal emerged as genuine title challengers in 1996/97 and it came as something of a shock when he moved to recently relegated Middlesbrough for a record £4.5m fee at the end of the season. That being said Merson was being offered a longer-term deal at the Riverside on wages beyond those of his Arsenal teammate Dennis Bergkamp so perhaps the move was more straightforward.

Middlesbrough were not the average second tier side with a squad featuring the likes of Fabrizio Ravanelli, Andy Townsend, Mikkel Beck and Hamilton Ricard as well as the aforementioned Paul Gascoigne towards the end of the campaign. Despite this Merson emerged as the star of Boro’s season earning the nickname ‘The Magic Man’ as a result of his sixteen goals in all competitions. Middlesbrough finished second in the league behind Nottingham Forest and repeated their League Cup heroics from the following year reaching the final before losing to Premier League Chelsea. Merson even managed an FA Cup goal against his former employers and was the solitary member of Glenn Hoddle’s World Cup squad playing outside of the top tier. He was an unused substitute as England advanced from the group stage but came on for Paul Scholes in the second half of their second round clash with Argentina. My resounding memory of this game, besides David Beckham’s red card, was Merson falling over a fair bit as the game headed into extra time but he succeeded where Paul Ince and David Batty failed in dispatching his shootout penalty past Carlos Roa.

Citing homesickness in the early stages of the 1998/99 season Merson moved to the infamous London club Aston Villa where he scored on debut and went on to enjoy, in his own words, “the best part of (his) career”. He earned his last two England caps around this time before Glenn Hoddle’s controversial comments on people with disabilities cost him the England job. After four seasons at Villa Park he dropped back down to the First Division to help Portsmouth gain promotion in the 2002/03 campaign before moving back to the Midlands with Walsall where he ended up serving as the club’s player-manager. In more recent years he has a been a regular Sky Sports pundit, played alongside Chris Kamara at Welshpool Town and appeared in the England sides as part of ITV’s ‘Harry’s Heroes’ alongside the likes of Neil Ruddock, Lee Sharpe and, interestingly, former Wales captain Vinnie Jones. Merson was praised for the honesty with which he addressed his ongoing issues with gambling and alcohol addictions. These issues perhaps limited Merson’s international career but his determination to take them on earned him a place in a hugely talented England squad and, moreover, a commemorative coin in a questionable piece of World Cup merchandise.